The present invention relates, in general, to connectors for holding together plural articles, and more particularly, to connectors for holding plural modular articles together in a predetermined configuration.
In the use of certain modular articles, such as pocket style containers, it is desirable to have several of them grouped together in a selected arrangement. It is also desirable to have arrangements of containers or other articles in which a basic configuration can be repeatedly extended to build up an assembly of many interconnected units.
For containers, it is frequently useful to have them arranged so that their respective contents are visible and/or readily accessible, as when storing quantities of different size hardware. There are a variety of container connectors known in the prior art and adapted for special purposes. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,849,659, there is disclosed a support and spacer for stacking open-top boxes whereby the lowermost box is held at an inclination to the horizontal, and successive boxes are stacked one upon another with front ends set back to provide access to each box.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,565,448, there is disclosed a pail holder which grips two adjacent pails at top and bottom for carrying together in side-by-side relation. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,107,131, there is disclosed a sectional drawer cabinet in which modular holders for receiving individual drawers are interconnected horizontally and vertically to form an extended drawer cabinet.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,841,725, there is disclosed shelving units that can be interconnected for extended capacity. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,809, there is disclosed a modular cabinet structure with interconnected units, and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,886, there is disclosed storage bins interconnected in tiers for display and access.
The subject invention provides a somewhat different type of connector that can be used singly or in groups to hold together a plurality of modular pocket containers, each of the type having plural edge portions. Such connector basically comprises a web member, and a plurality of retainer members connected to the web member for support thereby and which are positioned to engage respective edge portions of individual containers to hold said containers together in a predetermined configuration. The particular configuration in which the containers are held is determined by the positioning of the retainer members on the web in accordance with the several embodiments of the invention.
The typical modular container has two opposed side walls each having an upper edge portion and a lower edge portion. These edge portions are generally parallel and are spaced apart a distance corresponding to the height of the connector. In accordance with the invention, the connector to support such container comprises a web having a pair of integrally connected retainer members. Each retainer member defines a channel that receives and retains a corresponding edge portion of the container wall that is placed against the connector web.
A variety of container holding configurations are provided by the invention including a side-by-side configuration in which a pair of containers are held one on each side of the connector web; an adjacent in-line configuration in which a pair of containers are held along a common side of the web either vertically superposed or back-to-back; and an adjacent staggered configuration in which a pair of containers held along a common side of the web are vertically spaced with the front of the upper container set back from that of the lower container. These basic configurations can be repeated along a lateral build-up line, using multiples of a typical connector to form a large group of interconnected containers.
For a better understanding of the invention and its advantages, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and following detailed description which together exemplify certain preferred embodiments of the invention.